Turns Out The Tesla Model X Exceeds The Weight Limit Of The Brooklyn Bridge

It’s hard to believe that the Tesla Model X, an electric crossover SUV, is too heavy to legally cross the Brooklyn Bridge? Are you kidding me?

The most ironic part of this is that Tesla is currently setting up a showroom, service center, and office space in Brooklyn’s Red Hook area.

The Brooklyn Bridge has a weight limit of 3 tons (6,000 pounds). The car’s curb weight is 5,441 pounds. However, Tesla made it very clear that the actual gross vehicle weight rating is well over 6,000 pounds (or 6,768 pounds, to be precise). This was in order to assure that the company could qualify for a weight-related, “old”, tax loophole.

Now, we’re not entirely sure how the law is written for the bridge, but it is clear to us that with a couple passengers on board, the X would exceed the 6,000-pound limit.

Will Brooklyn police really go so far as to pull over Model X drivers who cross the bridge? We highly doubt it, but the folks over at Jalopnik somewhat jokingly write:

“…I would like to take this moment to remind the NYPD that they should feel free to fine, arrest, or PIT maneuver any Tesla Model X driver they see on the bridge.”

The Brooklyn Bridge has always had that weight limit to prohibit commercial traffic. Passenger cars only, no trucks or buses. Commercial traffic can either take the nearby Manhattan Bridge only a couple hundred feet away, or the Brookdlyn Battery Tunnel an 1/8 of a mile away.

Screw the bridge. A heavy car is actually a huge safety advantage: due to conservation of momentum, your (heavier) car is much more likely to kill someone in an accident than vice versa. It’s not all zero sum though: heavier cars can be bigger, and have larger crumple zones, which benefit everyone, at least in lower speed collisions. Once the crumple zone runs out the heavier car wins.

For the same braking action, weight increases emergency braking distance (less safe)
For the same evasive action, weight reduces manoeuvrability (less safe),
Then increases the chance of you loosing control of the car and getting off the road (less safe)
For the same speed, weight reduces the crumple zone’s effectiveness (less safe)
For the same impact, weight reduce the survival rate of the thing you’re hitting (pedestrian or other driver)

And we’r enot even talking about all the non-safety related drawbacks (energy consumption, cost of maintenance, perking ,etc…)

This limit was put in prevent dump trucks, buses and large construction vehicles from using this bridge. I notice you failed to note the number of other passenger vehicles that exceed the limit and cross this bridge 1000s a day. Why is this news? Because your not bright enough to realise how heavy all the other vehicles are that cross daily.

Clearly the author has a beef with Tesla as their slanted writing implies: “However, Tesla made it very clear…. This was in order to assure that the company could qualify for a weight-related, “old”, tax loophole.”

There are quite a few bridges in the Delaware Valley (and indeed everywhere in the rust belt) that have a 3 ton weight limit. One bridge that I’m familiar with, between Lambertville NJ and New Hope PA, has such a weight limit. Years ago, a particularly oily lawyer that I had hired was late to a meeting because he had driven his Humvee across the bridge and been pulled over and cited. Don’t ignore those signs, people.

GVWR is not remotely close to what a vehicle weighs. It is what it is allowed by the manufacturer and the regulators to weigh fully loaded. Actual weight will generally be far below that number, especially for a vehicle that is meant to haul cargo like an SUV. As such this article is based around a major fallacy.

I’m disappointed to see the original article, which I already read and is a clickbait fluff piece, is highlighted here on InsideEvs. But at least the original article does go on to note that this limit is routinely ignored by a wide variety of vehicles. Too bad InsideEVs’ abridgement of the article leaves that out. * * * * * “…with a couple passengers on board, the X would exceed the 6,000-pound limit.” Only if those passengers and their stuff weigh 279.5 lbs. apiece! Yeah, on average Americans are overweight, but not by that much! Even if that figure means the driver plus two passengers, that’s still 186.33 lbs. apiece… which is at least more plausible. Anyway, the weight limit argument falls apart if you think about it. The weight the bridge has to support is a limit on the total weight of all the cars on the bridge at the same time, not the weight of any individual one. During rush hour, with bumper to bumper traffic, there is gonna be a lot more weight on the bridge than there would be when traffic is flowing well, and that would be true even if in the latter case every… Read more »

The vehicle weighs well under 6000 pounds. The vehicle fully loaded is rated to weigh potentially more than 6000 pounds. You are fine as long as you don’t fill every seat with members of your football team.